In less than four minutes of the fourth-seeded Tigers’ NCAA Tournament first-round matchup against the 13th-seeded Yale, Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara was sent off for a flagrant 2 foul.
Washington, Spokane (AP) – Less than four minutes into the fourth-seeded Tigers’ first-round NCAA Tournament loss to No. 13 seed Yale on Friday, Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara was fouled for a flagrant 2 foul.
Auburn’s lack of Baker-Mazara was evident, particularly in the second half when Yale recovered to win 78-76. Bruce Pearl, the coach of the Tigers, questioned the officials’ decision to dismiss Baker-Mazara for the foul.
It’s not an easy decision to make. About five seconds prior, he had been struck, twisted up, and taken a slight elbow. It was disregarded, so perhaps no one saw, and then Chad struck him again, according to Pearl. “It wasn’t appropriate. Undoubtedly a blatant 1. The official had to decide whether to raise it to a flagrant 2, but it clearly had a significant impact on the result.
“Our team was really, really disrupted on both ends of the floor by losing one of our best players, one of our best playmakers, and a key component of our game plan—Chad.”
Less than three minutes had passed when the foul was committed, and after a protracted review by the referees, Baker-Mazara was eventually sent to the locker room. “I believe in my boys they got em!!” Baker-Mazara wrote on social media a short while later.
Replays revealed that while the two were running downcourt, Baker-Mazara looked to elbow August Mahoney of Yale. When play halted with 16:59 remaining, Mahoney sought to draw the referees’ attention right away, and they headed to the replay monitor.
Auburn’s Jaylin Williams stated, “Chad is a big part of our team, even just as another body out there.” “Chad is a great offensive player who also gets stops and performs a variety of other duties for us. Therefore, it greatly grieved us to have him gone.
Baker-Mazara had an average of 10.3 points going into the contest. Before the ejection, he had not scored.
At halftime, I had a brief conversation with him, and he seemed upset about it. He yearned for another chance. However, you don’t,” Pearl remarked. Give Yale credit for a lot of the game’s elements. We gave the ball over far too frequently, and they played excellent defense. Not that it hides the reality that we were without one of our finest players. He is among our top three or two players.
